


Unlikely Confidantes

by Steel_Feather



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst and Feels, Gen, Nebula is not a qualified therapist, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony is a bastion of guilt, Two bros chilling in a doomed spaceship five feet apart cuz they're both depressed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-07
Updated: 2019-02-07
Packaged: 2019-10-23 18:14:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17688410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Steel_Feather/pseuds/Steel_Feather
Summary: Tony and Nebula have too much time on their hands, so they reflect on the ones they've lost because, as we all know, that's healthy.





	Unlikely Confidantes

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the 0.5 seconds of Tony and Nebula in the Superbowl TV spot.

They don’t speak for the first few days.

Nebula circles around the ship constantly, her face tight with pain and her eyes following him as he silently works on a plan, any plan, that will get them to Earth.

On the fourth day, while taking a break from Plan #167, Tony finally asks her a question.

“What was she like?”

For a moment, he thinks she might kill him, or ignore him. She’s silent for a long time. Then:

“She was… compassionate. Fierce, too.” She closes her eyes, leans her head back against the wall. “We weren’t sisters by blood, you know. Just victims of the same evil.”

“Does that make a difference?” he asks, a faint _I’m sorry_ echoing in his head, clenching around his abused heart.

“No. No, it doesn’t.”

*****

“What about the boy?” she asks, hours later. “What was _he_ like?”

Tony breathes in, unsteadily, as he remembers.

_“Sorry!” Peter laughed, trying to scrape congealed web fluid off one of his work benches. “I was trying to fine-tune the, uh, stickiness duration. Huh. I need a better term for that.”_

_Tony smirked at him, only half-listening as he manipulated a two-dimensional rendering on a tablet, calculating weight versus protection, which materials would be needed to suit an agile, flexible style of motion, if he needed to add the capacity for powered flight…_

_“Whatcha working on, Mr. Stark?”_

_He turned the tablet over, hiding it from the curious eyes peering over his shoulder. “I’ll show you if you ever join the boy band, kid.”_

_Peter grinned. “I will. One day.”_

_“I’m expecting big things, Spiderling.” He ruffled his hair._

_“I’m gonna make you proud, Mr. Stark,” Peter told him, looking very serious. “Just you wait.”_

“He was better than me,” he tells his unlikely confidante, remembering a rooftop and a teenager and harsh words.

_If you died, I feel like that’s on me._

_I’m sorry._

She watches him, waiting.

“At first, I didn’t want to let him get too close,” he continues. “I didn’t exactly have good male role models, so I probably would have just screwed him up. And it wouldn’t have been fair for me to try to fit in his life, not after he already lost two fathers.”

“What changed?” she asks.

“I guess I just realized he was never going to stop being a hero,” Tony tells her, closing his eyes against another onslaught of memories. “God, I’ve never met a more selfless kid. He would have kept going until it killed him, so I had to help. And before I knew it, he got under my skin.”

She hums tunelessly.

“Before all this…” He swallows. “I was talking to Pepper. My fiancée. And I asked her about having kids. I’ve never wanted them before, but Peter…he made me rethink a lot of things. I think I did start thinking of him as a son. I was proud of him like he was my own.” His eyes burn.

“I wish I had told him.”

They work in silence for an hour or so.

“Gamora and I fought a lot,” Nebula finally offers. “Thanos pitted us against each other growing up, and I resented her, because she was his favorite, and I was second best.”

Tony can’t bring himself to utter the _Dad of the Year_ comment on his tongue, given the subject matter.

“We worked it out, eventually. I think she knew that I couldn’t hate her, but I’m glad I said it.”

Tony nods, unable to speak.

*****

“I told him this was a one-way ticket,” he says, numbly, as his hands work on Plan #328. “But I don’t think the kid believed me. He trusted me.”

_I’m sorry,_ he said, and Tony still doesn’t know what he was sorry for. Not beating Thanos? Dying?

“There probably wasn’t anything different you could have done,” Nebula tells him, her expression as comforting as he’s ever seen it.

“Yeah,” Tony agrees out loud, “probably not.”

_I’m sorry._

**Author's Note:**

> Please yell at me in the comments it gives me life


End file.
